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Learning to Read the Defense

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By John Groll, Assistant Coach

Bedford High School MI)

 

Football has been a part of my life for more than 30 years. Over that time, I have coached or played ever position except quarterback and defensive line. Under a new coach last year, I became the new defensive line coach in our 4-3 defense. I would like to share with you how we teach our defensive linemen to read various blocks.

 

I start by asking the questions, "What do I want our players to do and then how am I going to teach it?" I learned as both a coach and teacher, the better I teach, the better the students will perform. I have become, over time, a firm believer in coaching game situations. The drills taught should be the skills used.

 

To start coaching the defensive line, I began developing a progression of what was going to be taught. Every resource I used had basically the same progression - stance, get-off, hands, read, escape, and tackle. I would like to share what we do at the read step of the progression.

 

In our 4-3 defense, we align in a shade at every position. We do not want to be head up man on man and deal with a full blocker. We are aligned to the outside shoulder most of the time at every position; that is, 9 tech, 3 tech, shade on the weak side of the center and 5 tech. From our outside shade, I want our players to key the V of the neck. The V is the area between the neck and the shoulder and it will tell our D-linemen what to do on every play. I teach the V as the gap our D-linemen are assigned to. Here are the rules -

 

* If the shoulder goes inside, the gap has shifted inside.

 

* If the shoulder goes outside, the gap has widened.

 

As an example, a 3 tech aligns in the strong B gap. When a guard reaches to the outside, the running back is going outside of the guard. The B gap has moved wider so the 3 tech needs to be wider. The V is the gap we need to defend, not the two or thee feet that exist when the offensive guard and tackle are set at the line of scrimmage. We move when the V moves. I never tell my players to look at the ball. With their head inside, they get off too slowly. We must move when our closest blocking threat moves. By keying the V, our get-off improves significantly.

 

When we started working on the V of the neck concept, players understood what they were reading but they struggled with the idea that the V is the gap they are assigned to. To make it easier to read the V, I place a sticker or name tag on the base of the V of our D-linemen since we practice together during the week. I teach the players to target the sticker and stay aligned to wear it moves.

 

We start with three reads - straight, inside and outside. When the target comes at our D-linemen, we fire into a drive block. When the target goes inside, we counter by squeezing inside. When the target goes away, we lock the outside arm and shuffle our feet to the outside to maintain our outside alignment. Once those three blocks have been mastered, we then add pass blocking and cutting. When the sticker or tag rises up, we will pass rush. When the sticker goes down, it's a cut block.

 

I believe at the high school level reading the run is the most important thing for a defense. That's why we start with only three reads. Last year we worked on reading blocks every day and the team really improved in this area once the players understood the concept of the moving gap. By adding the visual of the sticker, I think the concept of reading blocks and maintaining gap assignments will be easier to teach and make our defensive linemen more effective.

 

 

About the Author: John Groll is an assistant football coach at Bedford High School in Temperance, MI.







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